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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26911531">The truth is finally breaking through</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/standoutme/pseuds/standoutme'>standoutme</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Julie and The Phantoms (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Bisexual Reggie (Julie and The Phantoms), Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Pansexual Luke Patterson (Julie and The Phantoms), Reggie has a realisation, Whoever made THAT scene is to blame, alex and luke are exes</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-07 00:21:10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>811</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26911531</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/standoutme/pseuds/standoutme</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>When Luke decides to prove he has chemistry with everyone, Reggie has a realisation; he likes Luke.<br/>He should've known sooner.</p><p>OR</p><p>All the times that Reggie was unknowingly simping for Luke Patterson.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Alex/Luke Patterson (Julie and The Phantoms), Luke Patterson/Reggie (Julie and The Phantoms)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>283</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The truth is finally breaking through</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Reggie was <i>not</i> gay.</p><p>No, Reggie liked girls. In fact, Reggie probably liked girls more than anyone he knew. He proudly proclaimed himself a simp (that was a new word he’d learned from Willie but nevertheless, one he adopted happily) for pretty much any girl who would look his way – and to be fair, those who wouldn’t as well. In all fairness, since becoming a ghost and popping up in 2020, the occasions in which most girls could actually see him were rare, and so for now, he would have to stick with simping for the latter.</p><p>Alex, on the other hand, Alex was gay. Alex liked boys, and Reggie had suspected as much long before Alex told them back in 1993, because if someone could recognise the flustering and the nervousness that crept up on his friend whenever there was a cute boy around – it was Reggie. Not that Reggie got flustered around boys, no that was already established – girls. He got flustered around girls.</p><p>However, as Luke decided to prove his ability to have chemistry with <i>anyone</i> he sang to that day in the garage, Reggie’s hypothesis came crashing down (much like the three friends had that day when they first showed up in the garage). As Luke sang to him, closing up on him by the second and grabbing his neck while just inches away from his face, it all made sense. Luke’s breath felt hot against his skin, and Reggie found himself frozen, <i>flustered</i>, scared to death yet still anticipating the kiss that seemed to be approaching. <i>He liked Luke.</i> He should’ve realised sooner, really.</p><p>He should’ve realised when he was fourteen, running away from home after his dad slapped him across the face for the first time, finding himself ending up at Luke’s house. When he’d thought he’d never feel safe again, yet within an hour after the <i>incident</i> felt safer than ever wrapped in his best friend’s arms. When Luke held him through the entirety of the night, drawing figures on his back and whispering into his hair that he would never let them hurt him again. He should’ve known, when he naively believed those whispered words of comfort.</p><p>He should’ve realised when he was fifteen, and Luke went away for the summer with his family, and Reggie’s sense of safety went away with him. That summer, when his anxiety got the best of him, and the only thing that seemed able to calm him down was holding onto the flannel Luke had left at the garage – that still carried his scent.</p><p>He should’ve known when he was sixteen, when Luke and Alex started growing closer – holding hands and showing up late to practice, hair messy and lips swollen. When the urging sensation of <i>jealousy</i> caused him to pull away from them. He told himself it was because he was left out, because they were his best friends and he felt like an outsider in his own band (despite the fact that Bobby was just as left out as him). He should’ve known when he willingly spent more time in the house, with his parents yelling, and his father drinking and throwing punches.</p><p>He should’ve known when he was seventeen, at the Orpheum, when Luke excitedly bounced around the way he always does, eyes shining as he chanted that they were going to be legends. When his best friend grabbed his face with the most vivid smile he’d ever seen and exclaimed “THE ORPHEUM, REGGIE, CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?”. And as Luke spoke excitedly about their dreams and how they were going to come true, Reggie couldn’t help but thinking that his dreams already had come true. Because he was there, with them, and he was happy. <i>He was safe.</i></p><p>And yet, there he stood, twenty-five years later, <strike>dead</strike>, in the very same garage they had started Sunset Curve, staring wide-eyed at his best friend – and he <i>knew</i>. All this time he had pushed his feelings down, pretending, covering it up as friendship, and now they were welling up all at once and Reggie knew. <i>He was simping for Luke Patterson, badly.</i></p><p>“I see chemistry,” Alex admitted, breaking the thick silence in which Reggie had anxiously awaited Luke to close the distance between them. Swallowing down hard on the thick lump that had formed in his throat, Reggie managed to pull himself back to reality.</p><p>“That was pretty hot,” he managed, voice cracking and giving up on him. Just then, Luke planted a kiss on his fingers and brought them to Reggie’s lips, before turning and walking away – leaving the other boy breathless. <i>Had he just imagined that?</i> </p><p>Reggie abruptly cleared his throat, in a desperate attempt to draw attention away from the fact that he was practically shaking. </p><p>“Girls, am I right?” he laughed nervously.</p><p>“Yeah,” Luke grinned in agreement.</p><p>“No,” Alex smiled, knowingly.</p>
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